Modern Vespa

I've been experiencing some slight fish tailing the last few weeks, sort of feeling every crack on the road so I kept an eye on my rear tire. It's a Michelin, and this is how it looks after 3233 miles.

I can probably attribute the excesive wear to the previous flat I took due to a faulty valve cap, or to the poor road conditions on my way home.
Either way, I'm not pushing my luck so I am awaiting delivery of a new tire which has been ordered with the dealer.

That's exactly how my rear tire looked at the same mileage. I would say that you got the exact mileage as is typical for a rear tire on an MP3 250. That's part of the reason why Piaggio went to a 14" rear tire on the 400/500, and why future 250's will probably have a 14" rear tire, too.

Interesting. What mods would Piaggio have to do in order to increase the tire size? Would all three tires have to increase to 14", or just the rear?

Specs for '08 400 indicate a 12" wheel.

They'll stay with a pair of 12" wheels on the front, because there are no wear issues with the double wheel system; however they'd have to adopt the MP3 400 platform, which allows a little more room for the larger rear tire, and slightly reduces your storage beneath your seat.

Heck, for a 14" wheel, I'd be willing to give up some trunk space, but acording to "volosong", we won't see that until '09.

Looks to me like your wear is uneven on the michelin. Could be just the

photo angle. Maybe there is some adjustment to make on suspinsion.

The wear doesn't look to be centered. Kinda like my front pair ,ugh.

Dave

14" rear wheel 250's will be at the dealers in the UK next week apparently! All of them (Mp3's not Fuoco) will get a face lift with new headlights, larger screen and a new design seat. Looks like some of the whinges have been listened too.

Don't feel bad, you know how I've been working on my bike, well, partly is because I'm waiting to tow its butt to a local shop for a new rear tire. Here's my rear tire at 3189: (and no I'm not riding it right now lol)

If you can take all the panels off your bike and I know you can Luthor you should be able to remove the rear wheel and just take that into the dealer instead of getting a tow. You would need a torque wrench to put it back together but it really isn't that bad a job to do. I've taken mine off 3-4 times and now do it in about 45 mins.

Where might I find instructions for doing that? The service manual?
And by torque wrench, you mean air-driven, not just a good socket and ratchet set, right? I might try it, especially since I'm probably going to order my own rear tires and take them up there. Every internet place I've found has better selection and cheaper prices.

You can find the 250 service manual here [topic630] Page 49 is where the description starts. The torque wrench is to torque the bolts back down when re-assembling it. This is not an air wrench, just in case you don't know what I'm talking about here is a link to wikipedia on them
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torque_wrench

Ahh found it. Starts on 249 of my User manual. I think I'll probably take it on my truck this time and next time, after I've picked up a torque wrench and hopefully someone has posted a tutorial on it, I'll give changing it myself a go. I would think that if I showed up with the new tire and the old tire and rim, that just getting it mounted would be significantly cheaper than the $50 odd dollars I'm being charged for changing it. Has this been you're experience?

Some places will mount the tire for free if you bought it at their shop and the wheel isn't attached to the bike. You could check local motorcycle shops and see if they do this, they should be able to order your tires as well. I plan on changing my own tires next time they are due, too much money spent at the dealer (over $100 if you include the price of the tire and the mounting) and I run through tires quickly on my 250 (well rear tires, the fronts are still going strong at 6500 miles).

When you do, could you post some pics and instructions? I'm sure the peeps on here would love ya for it.

Glad you posted that picture of your tire Luthor, and it shows much more wear than mine. My wife thought I was doing wheelies and such while she wasn't around supervising me.

jimc

Do you have pics of the changes or is this word of mouth info about the changes. The face lift and all.

You mean you haven't been?

Btw, the guy I'm having put my tires on, at least until I learn how to do it myself, is ordering Michelins that are listed as 'reinforced' and he swears they will be much better and last much longer. Cost around $50 bux. We'll see, and I'll make sure to give an update.

This just made my all my hairs stand on end. Is it the 09 250 and 400s? I ask, because I am waiting for my dealer to get some 400s, but at this point, they have absolutely no idea when they will get more. But If what you say is true, I maybe just willing to let others who have a downpayment slide ahead of me on the list :p And maybe they will have fixed the speedo for Mph, but thats seems unlikely with the curent trend so far lol.

I hope someone on this forum can get some pics of the new design

If I knew what I know now, and If I was contemplating on the purchase of an MP 3, I would sure as hell wait for that new model to come out. If there comes a modification for a 14" rear tire, I would more than likely go for it.
One thing is for certain, if they ever come out with it, they would have to reduce the price of the current models, or end up with a lot of white elephants in the showroom.

The only major downside of the older smaller rear wheel is the extra tyre wear. Many owners don't do high mileages anyway, so not so huge a problem. What the 'new' seat might be like is anyone's guess at the moment, they're being very coy.

I guess like anything, they won't know exactly how a 14" rear tire would fan out on an MP3 250/400 until they put it out and we, as the customers, will either rave or complain about it.

I'm reading other forums where owners are riding thousands of miles, going cross county, and I don't hear a peep about them having to change their tires after 3, 4, or 5 thousand miles.

250's do seem to shred the tyres earlier than one would expect though. An MGS 14" rear should last most folk for 8000 miles, (6000 for me perhaps, trackdays and stuff) not less than 4000 miles.

Do you guys ride alot of 2up, solo, or mixed?

Yikes!

I better take a really close look the rear tire on my 250...with 3500 miles on it.

Does anyone know if the Bridgestone Battleax tire will last longer than the origional Michelin Pilot Sport?

Ride safe!

trekguy wrote:
Yikes!

I better take a really close look the rear tire on my 250...with 3500 miles on it.

Does anyone know if the Bridgestone Battleax tire will last longer than the origional Michelin Pilot Sport?

Ride safe!
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I'm no expert but whoever sells you a tire will claim that it would last longer. That's called "a sale".
Crawler: I don't know what you mean by mixed, but on weekends, I ride two up with my wife and solo otherwise. Is that mixed??

When it comes time to purchase a new tire for the MP3, can any tire shop replace the tire? Or do I have to have a vespa dealer perform the tire change? It sounds like I can take it anywhere o perform it myself (which I can't do). First scooter ever, and I am not sure. Thank you for any responses

My first scooter also, and I'm no shade tree mechanic so I'm going for the extra buck and having my dealer do it. I'll post what it cost me when I get the bill.
How many miles do you have??

my MP3 rear tire with 3400 miles also looks like yours. So should I go whit the same type of tire? I guess I need to research more about it.

Sorry for the mixed part of my post . You answered my question. I also ride with my wife and solo. Just Trying to see if the wear is more from solo riding or 2up. I thought that I read somewhere on this forum that this tire is soft and grippy where as some others are harder rubber.

At the moment, I can't recall who it was that showed us his tire when it failed at 2900 miles, but his testimony was challenged because it seemed so out of the ordinary. The more he insisted that it was due to normal use, others would speculate that he must have done, or someone else had done, wheelies and such tactics which would cause the abnormal tire wear.
Then I started checking mine and posted my photo, which was followed by a photo from Luthorhus which had a worse tread wear. Now I'm seeing others with the same problem.
When Startrekstuntman had tire failure, Michelin and Piaggio were pointing the finger at each other leaving him with the cost of replacement.

As I mentioned many times before, I'm no expert on tires, or mechanical designs, but where there's smoke, there's fire. I urge you all to take a photo of your tire and note the miles somewhere for future pupose, if you feel that it is not holding its tread.

Crawler: I'm glad I answered your question as to solo or two up, but give this question some thought:

If two persons weighing 150lbs each were riding two up, what woud be the difference in weight on the bike if a single rider weighed 300lbs?

I read something like that on a thread here and your question reminded me of it.

Good answer!!


JohnnyD

My 400 has Michelin gold standard, they look very good at 1300 miles. Is the problem with the Michelin pilots?

Also I was talking with a friend who rode bikes, he and I thought that riding 2 up would place more of the weight over the back tire and in solo the weight would be more centered over both front and back tires.

My local dealer said to maintain good tire pressure. (27 front/35 rear)

3200 to 3500 miles just sounds low to me also.

crawler i like your helment what brand is it?

It's a Gmax. I had one of my customers make me some vinyl graphics, the kind you put on cars. Very cheap. $20 made and applied. For that price I may be changing up the design quite often.
Thanks for asking.

Got my rear tire replaced today at 3400 miles. Total price including labor: $206.70

Now, should I ride like I stole it and make it up on gas savings???

Or ride less to conserve on tire usage????

What! why too much?

I found this pirelli for 46.99
and I call Vespa Thousand Oaks and they want 52 for installation
http://www.motorcycle-superstore.com/5/32/404/5816/ITEM/Pirelli-GTS-24-Rear-Scooter-Tire.aspx?SiteID=CJ&WT.mc_ID=54006&WT.MC_ID=54006&SiteId=10557879-3080376-

It will take them about half an hour - if you remove the wheel yourself and just get them to do the tyre change (and replace afterwards, remember you may need a new exhaust gasket) that USD52 may change into USD10, plus something for a new valve, balancing etc... Oh, about USD52 then.

For the aggro involved, cheap at the price, really. Me, I go the aggro route, I like to check other bits at the same time.